10 things to know before the opening bell on March 19

SUMMARY

The Indian market is likely to open lower on Friday following losses in global markets as a spike in bond yields spooked investor sentiment. At 8:00 am, the SGX Nifty was trading 92.00 points or 0.63 percent lower at 14503.50, indicating a negative start for the Sensex and Nifty50.

By CNBCTV18.comMar 19, 2021 8:04:01 AM IST (Updated)

1. Wall Street: Stocks closed lower Thursday, as higher bond yields once again pulled down shares of technology companies and the energy sector sold off on a drop in oil prices. The IT-heavy Nasdaq suffered its second-worst loss of the year, falling 3 percent. Bank stocks were among the best performers as investors bet that higher interest rates would translate into higher profits. The S&P 500 index fell 1.5 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.5 percent.

2. Asian stocks: Asia-Pacific markets fell Friday as investor sentiment turned cautious on the back of fresh worries around inflation expectations. Australian shares tumbled after market open, with the benchmarkASX 200down 0.58 percent. TheNikkei 225in Japan declined 0.6 percent while the Topix index was down 0.32 percent. South Korea’sKospifell 0.84 percent.

3. D-Street: Indian indices ended a percent lower on Thursday, extending losses for the fifth straight session as bond yields spiked to their 13-month high. TheSensex ended 585 points lowerat 49,216 while the Nifty lost 163 points to settle at 14,558.

4. Crude oil: Oil prices fell on Friday, extending losses for a sixth day as a new wave of COVID-19 infections wash across Europe, spurring new lockdowns and dampening hopes for a recovery in demand for fuels anytime soon. US crude fell below $60 again and was trading at $59.97 a barrel by 0115 GMT. Brent crude was off by 1 cent at $63.27.

5. Rupee: The rupee retreated from its early highs to close marginally up by 2 paise at 72.53 against the US currency on Thursday due to a resurgent dollar as US bond yields spurted to 14-month high. At the interbank forex market, the local unit opened strong at 72.48 against the greenback, which was trading lower against the leading global currencies in early trade. Later the rupee hit a high of 72.43 in morning trade due to lower oil prices and forex inflows.

6. Gold: Gold rose by Rs 105 to Rs 44,509 per 10 gram in the national capital on Thursday, according to HDFC Securities. In the previous trade, the precious metal had closed at Rs 44,404 per 10 gram. Silver also jumped Rs 1,073 to Rs 67,364 per kilogram from Rs 66,291 per kilogram in the previous trade.

7. SEBI: Markets regulator SEBI has defended its stance on perpetual AT-1 bonds after the Department of Financial Services requested it to withdraw its revised norms issued last week.

8. Amazon-Future Group: In what comes as a relief for Amazon, the Delhi High Court has upheld the emergency arbitrator's order in the Future Retail case. The court found that Future Retail and Kishore Biyani deliberately and willfully disobeyed the order and are liable to face action.

9. COVID-19: For the first time in more than 100 days, India has reported nearly 36,000 coronavirus infections in the last 24 hours. This comes just a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi cautioned against the "emerging second wave" after a huddle with chief ministers.

10. CAIT: The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) in a letter sent to Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal has said that foreign entities like Amazon and Flipkart are hell bent on ruthlessly destroying the Indian retail sector with their deep pockets and expansive lobby of legal experts who will stop at nothing before trampling the lives of over 40 crore Indians.